Study Break – Gesundheit!

Everyone needs a study break now and then, so I thought I’d share my current favorite iPhone game. Gesundheit! is deceptively simple at first, but its beautiful (and adorable) hand-drawn art and its happy accompanying music pull you in deeper for hours of enjoyment. I was dubious at first, but i’ve been playing semi-obsessively since I downloaded it this weekend at a friend’s suggestion. I have it on my iPhone, but there’s also an “HD” version for iPad.

You play a small green pig with a very bad cold. To make matters worse, nobody wants to be your friend. Oh, and there’s a whole slew of monsters and other creatures out to get you. As soon as you’re in their line of sight, the monsters will chase you (so be careful not to step out from behind a tree or building until you’re ready to make a run for it!) Fortunately, you have the ability to sneeze, which turns out to be quite useful in the world of Gesundheit, because you can use it to travel long distances and to lure monsters to their doom.
In addition to ridding the world of monsters (which is the primary goal of each level), you also need to gather 3 Star Fruit on each level. You can complete a level without gathering the Star fruit, but there are certain points in the game where you can progress no further until you’ve gathered a certain number of them.

The controls are very simple. You move around the screen by touching the spot you want to go. You sneeze in a given direction by pulling back like a sling shot (à la Angry Birds). That’s pretty much it.

Gesundheit! is a great puzzle game which requires a bit of thought to solve, but none of the levels are too difficult . Plus you can skip a few levels here and there and still make it through to the end of the game as long as you remember to gather enough Star Fruit along the way. It’s a fun, cute, well-crafted puzzle game that’s perfect for the occasional study break–just remember to get back to your books eventually.

(Oh! Btw, I’ve installed Gesundheit HD on one of the iPads down in the Vitale Digital Media Lab in the Weigle Info Commons if you’d like to come try it out!)